Cardinals' Trade Deadline Strategy Predicted In Full By MLB Analyst

St. Louis Cardinals fans have no idea what to expect at the trade deadline.

Will the Cardinals buy, sell, or hold?

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak said on Friday that he’s still undecided about which path to take and that he might even wait until 72 hours before the July 31 deadline to come to a decision.

It’s also been reported that Mozeliak’s decision will be impacted largely by how St. Louis performs between now and the end of July.

This is Mozeliak’s last season in charge of the Cardinals, of course, as Chaim Bloom will be taking over baseball operational duties after the season.

In essence, there are a lot of variables contributing to how St. Louis will approach the deadline.

MLB Network’s Keith Costas explained this situation on Friday while appearing as a guest on the Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney podcast. Costas was asked by ESPN’s Paul Hembekides (filling in for Olney as host) to predict what the Cardinals will do.

“They are in a period of transition,” Costas said, referring to the Mozeliak-to-Bloom transfer of power looming.

“And I think that the way they approach the offseason is probably informative about the way they're gonna approach the trade deadline. It's just such a wide-open situation. I have a hard time seeing them spending much prospect capital to make any significant additions, but at the same time, if things take a turn for the worse (in July), they've got some pretty intriguing pieces. Obviously (Nolan) Arenado has gotten a lot of headlines … (but you have to) look at what teams are gonna be wanting to add at the deadline and how postseason baseball is played. When you have Ryan Helsley and (Phil Maton) … I think there's gonna be a lot of people … calling for those bullpen pieces.”

Costas also pointed to St. Louis’ surplus of position players being a potential factor in Mozeliak’s plan, but ultimately predicted that Mozeliak will more or less hold.

“They have so many position players … they could be in a position to maybe … shuffle that position player mix and get a little clarity moving forward in 2026,” Costas said.

“But again, if they keep playing well and they're right there in the wild card race … I just see them kind of holding steady, maybe picking up that classic, you know, mid to back-end rotation type piece that teams in that position tend to always target the deadline.”

Costas’ assessment makes it sound like there won’t be fireworks from Mozeliak, but you never know.

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